Resurrection Paperback – Unabridged, January 24, 2012

This is one of the more successfully ambitious books I've read in a while. The landscape is huge, both in time and space, and there are 4 story lines that intertwine to provide texture and depth. First, we meet the main characters, both aliens, both from different, yet similar worlds, and both after the same thing, an ancient technology which will help them, and which exists in only one place ...modern Earth.The next story line tells us how that technology got here, and what happened to those who brought it, and were then stranded. The final thread shows the interaction between the main characters, and the hunt for this essential technology, currently held by one of the original crew of the ancient ship.The modern characters are nicely drawn, a challenge, since both come from alien cultures. That one of them is "human" is a bit disconcerting, and does require more suspension of disbelief than reasonable. Evolution is based on planetary factors, and if one race was "seeded" in more than one place, there should have been more to support that theory. Still, there are enough cultural differences to make this work, if barely. Each of the 3 worlds involved have different cultures, and the author presents them clearly and sympathetically. It is interesting to note the similarities in the 2 alien worlds. Again, this works because they are fairly close spatially, and because although they both have characteristics in common, they are expressed in different ways.The story line that takes place in the far distant past functions to provide background to the modern action, but it also functions to explain things that happen in the now, which is why it is interspersed throughout the book, rather than being contained in its own set of chapters. We can see the influence of certain actions on current events. While I'm not a proponent of the theory that aliens built the pyramids, or contributed to Earth's ancient cultures in any way, I can accept it in the context of alternative history fiction. This is also where we meet the real villain of this book. He isn't an arch-villain ...he's a bitter little man, barely competent in his job, and jealous of anyone who he thinks has things better than he does ...and that would include just about anyone. We've all seen such people; our work places are full of them. They are small minded, lazy, embittered and jealous, blaming anyone and everyone for their failures, while at the same time doing nothing positive to increase their own successes. Such people can do enormous harm, however.The ancient characters are identified by function, and not name. This makes them impersonal, and gives them the status of archetypes: The Captain and The Doctor, for example. This almost works, except that we see these archetypes act in very human and very imperfect ways. Two of them fell headlong into a trap that we have seen played out in our own history. I call it the "I am a god based on my more advanced technology". True, the more primitive society accepts that, even encourages it, and sometimes tries to force the more technologically advanced visitors to accept it. But it back fires, always, as it did in this book. The use of titles rather than names might also be a demonstration of an ancient planetary convention that did not survive...but, if so, that should have been explained.I had no trouble keeping times and places straight, and thought the author handled the transitions well. However, I think the ending was overly idealistic and naïve. I can see how, given the characters involved, who, despite the fact that they are highly trained warriors, were trained in a spiritually based system. Both systems were based on attitudes of honor, though expressed differently, and, to me, they provided some of the most interesting portions of the book. However, those systems also created a certain mind set in the characters, which made what they did believable.I suspect that the reactions to their final actions would be very different than expected, and that the characters have opened Pandora's Box ...on 3 planets.Despite the issues in this book, it works, and works very well, indeed. The final result is a tale worth reading, particularly if you don't examine it too closely.

I was browsing through Third Place Books, which is a local bookshop here in Shoreline (just north of Seattle), when I saw one of the "recommended" tags that members of the bookstore staff place next to various books on the shelves. The tag I saw really extolled the merits of the book Resurrection by Arwen Dayton. So despite the hookey cover - crystals and pyramids?? - I bought a copy and read it.The best thing about Resurrection is Dayton's description of her plucky heroine, Pruitt. Pruitt is a member of a species called the Kinley that live on a planet that is 8 light years from Earth. Her planet is at war with another alien species, the evil Lucien. The war has devastated the planet so badly that only a fragment of the original biosphere remains, the Kinley survive by hiding in domed cities on a ravaged surface. The Lucien continue to attack, and one of their agents is captured. Unprompted, the captured agent blurts out the fact that in 30 years or so, the Lucien will unleash an attack that will utterly obliterate the remaining Kinley! Something must be done!! (Why would the Lucien tell an agent who works behind enemy lines their long term strategic plans? It would be like Eisenhower telling the French Resistance of the Normandy invasion plans - no one would ever do that.) Pruitt is selected to be sent to Earth. Her mission is to discover what happened to a Kinley exploration ship that traveled to Earth 5000 years ago, using Faster Than Light technology. Recover that technology, and the Kinley will somehow be able to escape from the Lucien attacks. (In the intervening 5000 years, it didn't occur to any of the Kinley that they might want to recover that lost FTL technology?)Pruitt faces some daunting obstacles, including the death of her fellow crew member and a crash landing that destroys her ship. Nevertheless, she persists in her search, unaware that she is being tracked by a couple of Lucien agents that have followed her to Earth. Fortunately, Pruitt has the advantage of a magic bio-suit, that will heal her, or anyone else she touches. Indeed, at one point an unconscious Pruitt is taken to an Earth emergency room, and the ER team is unable to insert IV needles into her arms because the magic bio-suit. (Unexplained is the fact that the evil Lucien agents were able to make a couple of cuts in Pruitt's skin with a simple knife and insert two tracking probes. Why didn't the suit block the knife? Why didn't the suit inform Pruitt she is caring two alien objects? Why doesn't the suit expel the foreign objects?)This brings me to the huge flaw with Resurrection - the plot doesn't make a lick of sense. Only the original Ship's Captain had knowledge of Faster Than Light travel, even though it would have taken a huge team of engineers and scientists to construct his original space craft? Why not leave behind a crystal explaining how FTL works? (For some odd reason, none of the crew members on the FTL ship have names, they are only identified by their position, such as Captain, Mechanic or Third Mate. I wondered what happened to their names if someone got promoted...)Pruitt travels (in hibernation) the 8 light years from Kinley to Earth in 16 years, which means her ship can travel at half the speed of light. This is plenty fast enough for the Kinley to explore and colonize nearby worlds; Pruitt's journey shows that it is possible. If the Kinley have ships like this, why haven't they use them for the last 5000 years? The Lucien also have ships of equal capability, as they demonstrate by by following Pruitt. (How did they know about Pruitt's departure? I expected to learn about a traitor in the Kinley hierarchy, but no explanation was ever forthcoming.) But the Lucien apparently don't use these capable ships either.Just because you plant a tiny transmitter into someone's body, it will only track that person if there are receiving towers or satellites somewhere to pick up the signals, but the Lucien agents have none of these. Yet somehow their handheld devices track Pruitt over vast distances.Pruitt's magic bio-suit is so powerful that it can cure a human with AIDs with just a touch!How is it possible that the Kinley and humans are so closely related that they can interbreed? Obviously, Kinley and humans must be the same species, because only creatures from the same species can successfully mate. Yet the Kinley are from a different world. No explanation for this anomaly.Why don't the Lucien simply drop a few asteroids onto the few remaining Kinley domed cities? Even a near miss would more than do the trick.Pruitt's human boyfriend sees that she is under attack. What shall he do to help her? Why not rip this robe off a man standing nearby! That doesn't make a bit of sense, except pulling off the robe reveals an alien Lucien standing there!! Who would have guessed? The humans lose their focus on Pruitt and go running off after the Lucien.There are many more logical blunders in the plot of this book. It might make a empty-headed sci-fi movie some day (Pyramids! Aliens! Spaceships!) but it is a disappointing read. Certainly it didn't merit the effusive praise of the bookstore staff.

I really enjoyed this story, it was a mix of classic science fiction, ancient history and a modern thriller. I’m not an expert on the Egyptology, but what there was worked very well for me as a story and was plausible. It managed to avoid being too Erich von Däniken in its approach, and the way that the locals never grasped the technology was completely believable.Another aspect that I liked was the interplay between the metal poor and biotech rich Kinley (humans from a planet 8 light years away) and their enemies who used cloned Kinley to spy on them. This provided some of the science fiction backdrop for a modern day thriller, with the two racing to recover the lost secret of faster than light travel (the prototype lost in the time of the ancient egyptians as the enemies initiated an apocalyptic war that almost wiped them both out).The story flitted between the ancient survey team who had used their prototype FTL drive to reach Earth and the modern day search to recover their technology. This worked well, showing the pre-war splendour and achievements in small pieces as the protagonists work out where the survey team have got to. The original team are also shown as dysfunctional and fragmented as their egos get in the way of working together to return home. Mostly this is down to a couple of self-centred characters working against the best interests of the team.So it has an interesting set of characters who develop (and some die) over the course of the story. There is more than one plot, characters seem to act in a reasonable way given their motives and preferences (including a couple of unreasonable irrational characters, their mental instability comes across well). There are some clever explanations for some of the ancient egyptian behaviours, including a novel explanation for how and why the great pyramid was built!Overall well worth reading.

The novel is about an advanced civilization, the Kinley, living in a planet about 8 light years far from Earth. They send a ship to Earth to recover ancient faster-than-light technology that had been lost five thousand years before. They need it to escape planned aggression by the Lucien, a belligerant race inhabiting a nearby star system. The two races have nearly annihilated each other in a previous war. The plot is potentially interesting, but the author's naivety about fundamental scientific notions is insufferable. Somebody should have explained to her that it is extremely unlikely that living beings evolved independently in two distinct planets are so similar as to breed with no difficulty. And what about three different alien people enjoying the same food, respiring the same atmosphere, appreciating the same temperatures and bearing with no difficulty air pollution in the city center of the El Cairo on rush hours?.The plot is an incredible sequence of misfortunes on the Kinley side, with the loss of the only prototype of the faster-than-light ship (an earthquake buries it a few days after landing on Earth), the death of one of the two rescuing agents even before they get to destination, the loss of the "landing pod" by the surviving agent,the betrayal of an ancient Kinley survived on the Earth for five thousand year, and so on. Sometimes bouring, quite slow, naive, superficial story. Anyway, I'm happy of having read this book: now I know that even I could write a novel and sell it.

I liked the storyline and the main characters and it had just enough science in it to make it sound plausible too, without being flooded with techno babble, which can be off-putting in some novels. Lots of different threads and storylines going on, with just the right mixture of science fiction and character growth and awareness. Nice ending too, which is often a let down in many books. The only reason I haven't given it five stars is because it is just a little long winded in getting to the point in some places, with a little too much detail. However I would thoroughly recommend it as one of the best sci fi novels I have read and can't wait for more novels from the brilliant author, or maybe a follow up. There doesn't seem to be an option for 4 1/2 stars or I would have given it that rating.

I really enjoyed this book. The plot line is very different from anything I've read recently and really enjoyed the inventive plot line. Essentially, the plot revolves around Pruit, a young alien from a race called the Kinley who live many light years from Earth. Pruit is sent to Earth to locate a technology which her race has lost but desperately requires the technology to save their race from another alien race they are at war with.The plot switches from Ancient Egypt to modern day Egypt seamlessly. The characters are really well written and evolve throughout the story. The action is excellent but their are also much deeper moments.Really excellent plot and separate threads which combine to a truly breathtaking finale. Excellent!

Really good story, well written and intertwining Egyptian mythology, Earth history and an interstellar war between two alien races - the Lucien and the Kinley. I enjoyed the way the story skips from ancient Egypt with the rise of the pharaohs, assisted with a Kinley "faster than light" survey vessel that becomes stranded on Earth and present day North Africa, where Eddie, an archaeologist come egyptologist, finds remnants of Kinley technology during a dig in the sahara . Both the Kinley and the Lucien send recovery teams for the technology, especially the capability of "faster than light" travel - which will enable either race to gain the upper hand in the ensuing war….and Earth, and Eddie, are caught in the middle. I will look out for this author again!